Tokyo make cut with 2020 bid

After IOC confirm final three cities to compete for the 2020 Olympic Games, Tokyo organisers express their delight.

Thu May 24 2012 10:12:04 GMT+0000

Tokyo and two other cities cleared the selection committee's first hurdle to host 2020 Games [AFP]

Tokyo organisers have expressed their delight that the Japanese capital made the cut to be one of three contenders to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday decided the race for the 2020 Olympics will come down to a contest between Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul.

Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, and Baku, Azerbaijan, were eliminated from the bidding process at IOC meetings held in Quebec City, Canada.

"It is a great pleasure and true honor that Tokyo has been accepted as a candidate city,'' Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, chairman of the Tokyo 2020 bid committee, said at a press conference on Thursday.

"We are determined more than ever to produce the best plan ahead of the election of the host city in September next year"

Tokyo bid president Tsunekazu Takeda

The IOC will select the 2020 host city at a meeting in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

The executive board, chaired by IOC President Jacques Rogge, chose the finalists after examining a technical evaluation compiled by a panel of Olympic experts. The board then voted on each candidate.

Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, received the highest praise in the IOC report, which said the Japanese bid presents "a very strong application." Madrid has a "strong application," while Istanbul's project "offers good potential," the report said.

As it did in a bid to host the 2016 Olympics, Tokyo is boasting a highly compact venue plan, which will see athletes live and compete right in the heart of the city. All but three Tokyo venues will be located within eight kilometers of the Olympic Village in the city's downtown district.

A major improvement of the 2020 bid is that the main Olympic stadium will be in the center of the city as opposed to the 2016 plan for a pier on the Tokyo waterfront, which the IOC deemed as too inaccessible.

"We have kept the best and improved the rest from our previous bid,'' Tokyo 2020 bid committee president Tsunekazu Takeda said.

"We are determined more than ever to produce the best plan ahead of the election of the host city in September next year."

Tokyo is promoting their 2020 bid as a symbol of Japan's recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left over 15,000 people dead or missing on Japan's northeast coast.